Neil C. Kienast and Braman B. Broy v. United States

This Court has applied the U.S. v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897 (1984) good faith exception in a variety of cases to include a knock and announce violation (Hudson v. Michigan, 547 U.S. 586, 126 S.Ct. 2159, 165 L.Ed.2d 56 (2006)); an outdated arrest warrant (Arizona v. Evans, 514 U.S. 1, 115 S.Ct. 1185, 131 L.Ed.2d 34 (1995)); and a recalled warrant (Herring v. United States, 555 U.S. 135, 129 S.Ct. 695, 172 L.Ed.2d 496 (2009)). Some of the circuit courts, including the Seventh Circuit in this case, are extending it to warrants that are deemed void ab initio. See also, U.S. v. Levin, 186 F. Supp. 3d 26 (1st Cir. 2017) and U.S. v. Workman, 863 F.3d 1313 (10th Cir. 2017). Can the good faith exception apply where there should have never been a warrant at all? The questions presented are: I. Does the Leon exception apply to the warrant in this case? II. Was the multijurisdictional warrant valid? III. Is there a valid privacy interest at stake that is subject to Fourth Amendment Protection? IV. Is the governmental action of reproducing and distributing one of the largest collections of child porn so severe of misconduct that suppression is warranted?